2015 One Pound

Three different £1 coins were issued in 2015 – The standard (unchanging) reverse design by Matthew Dent coupled with both the 1998-2015 Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of the Queen, and the new Jody Clark fifth portrait of the Queen. Also, a new coin with a heraldic reverse was issued.

There was also another £1 coin made dated 2015 – a trial 12-sided type which was supplied to vending machine companies. Legally, it was a requirement that they be returned, but it seems that some were not and a few have been offered for sale online. They remain the property of the Royal Mint, so technically you may be able to possess one, but you can never own it. Pictures of the trial coin are shown below.

Mintage for Circulation: Not yet accurately known. Coin available in sets only, none made for circulation. A figure of 62,475,640 was quoted by the Royal Mint (since changed), but this is in all probability an error. This coin was only available in the year sets.

The obverse portrait of the Queen by Ian Rank-Broadley was used on all UK circulated coinage from 1998 to 2014 and on many coins dated 2015. The portrait was changed to the fifth bust of the Queen in March 2015, which has led to their being two different Pound coins, both with the same reverse.

The reverse design shows the shield of the Royal Arms by Matthew Dent. The edge inscription is ‘DECUS ET TUTAMEN’, as above. Matthew (Matt) Dent won the competition to design the all-new 2008 coinage. He grew up in Wales and studied Graphic design at the University of Brighton.

Obverse Type 5 (bust design by (Mr) Jody Clark):

Reverse Type 24 (design by Timothy Noad):

Edge: DECUS ET TUTAMEN.

Mintage for Circulation: 129,616,985. Originally there was some confusion and it was thought to be 62,475,640.

The reverse design by Timothy Noad represents the Royal Arms and is similar in some respects to the first £1 coin reverse made in 1983.

Trial 12-sided coin, Obverse:

Trial 12-sided coin, Reverse:

The trial 2015 £1 coins were made and distributed early in 2015 to companies involved in the manufacture or calibration of vending machines, they therefore, unlike the 12-sided coins that have entered circulation, feature the Ian Rank-Broadley 4th bust of the Queen.

2016 ‘mule’: Verified with mirror pictures, showing both sides at once – there appears to be a trial coin which has the trial reverse (as shown above) but instead of the 2015 dated obverse with the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait, it has the 2016 dated standard circulation obverse. Apparently a batch of 1,000 trial coins were deliberately made like this for further testing.

The whole 12-sided £1 coin theme is in fact quite complicated, there being 7 different types of 2014/15/16/17 coins currently known! This post features a handy graphic overview: The six new £1 coin varieties

Note that on eBay every Tom, Dick or Harry seems to have listed normal 2016 dated coins with the word ‘trial’ in the description! The normal 2016 coins are not trial coins, despite them being first released in 2017! There are millions and millions of them.

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